Superman Week Part 7

We have now come to the finale of Superman week, where it is time to talk about the reboot to the Superman series, “Man of Steel,” which actually came out a month ago. FINALLY, we get a good Superman movie, which ironically enough, hasn’t been since “Superman 2.” Now the story begins with a Kryptonian named Lara, played by Ayalet Zurer, giving birth to her son, Kal-El. This is the first natural born child of Krypton in over hundreds of years, which makes her husband, Jor-El, played by New Zealand actor you might remember from such roles like “Gladiator” and “Les Miserables,” Russell Crowe, really happy. He tries to tell the government that the planet is about to explode, until General Zod, played by Michael Shannon, enters in. I will say that I didn’t like the way they killed Jor-El in this one. Zod stabs him to death after he and Lara send their son off to Earth. I always thought that the image of Jor-El and Lara holding one another before Krypton explodes was great. Then again, they do change the origin story somewhat in this film, which I’m fine with. But how come I always see Russell Crowe in a film where he dies in? Seriously, he died in “Gladiator,” “Les Miserables,” and now this film? Is it written in his contract that he needs to sign on to just play a role where he dies in? The only film that I have seen of his where he doesn’t die in is “A Beautiful Mind.”

On Earth, we cut years into Kal-El's, or Clark Kent now (or Joe as he is called a couple of times in here), played by Henry Cavill, life. Unlike the past adaptations where we see his childhood until he reaches his adult life, we see glimpses of his past in the form of flashbacks, which I think is nice for this remake. His Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, try to help him until they tell him where he originally came from. No, they do not know about Krypton, so they just tell him that they found him in the spaceship. Also, Jonathan Kent died of a heart attack. In this film, there is a hurricane that comes in, and the three of them get out of the truck until Martha said that the dog is still in the truck. Why send Jonathan back to get your dog? I don’t hate dogs, but in this case, just forget the dog. Also, when Clark steps forward to save Jonathan, he stops him and dies in order to keep his secret, which I think is strong that he did that, but it's still contrived. Still, why did you send Jonathan back to save your dog Martha? He is the man that you said to have a lifetime commitment with, and you send him back to save your dog? Have you forgotten the wedding vows? Why didn’t you let Clark go back? It would have been great if you just made him go back because he can’t die or get hurt by the hurricane. There have been reports in the news of hurricane survivors, so it would have been a great story for the paper. Other than that, Costner does do a good job in this film and really does a good job with the emotional scenes, which would remind you of when Uncle Ben died in the “Spiderman” films. People complain that Costner is a bland actor and he isn't good, but I think he does a really good job in his roles.

Now Lois Lane is played by one of the hottest actresses, Amy Adams, who I have to say is really good in this film. She doesn’t play a reporter like she is top notch and can do anything; she just goes and does her own business. I like that. She, Cavill, and Shannon look good for the today’s look on Superman, Lois, and Zod. Also, I like how when Clark finds the Fortress of Solitude, Lois follows him, and they start the film off with her knowing that he is Superman. She does the report, goes around Metropolis to find clues as to who he is, before coming to Martha at the farm in Smallville. I really liked that update, and no there won’t be that weird mind erasing kiss at the end of the film, thankfully. With this version, she is the only person that knows about Clark being Superman, and she doesn’t tell anyone. Much to the dismay of her boss, Perry White, played by one of the coolest actors, Laurence Fishburne, she does stop, which ultimately leads to her four week leave in the Daily Planet.

When Superman finds the Fortress of Solitude and becomes Superman, he discovers the powers he has, and notices he can’t fly so high into space, or else he won’t breath. Thankfully, director of “300,” Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan didn’t make a “Superman 4” mistake of him breathing in space. Snyder and Nolan really treated this film with care and did a fairly good job with this reboot.

However, I do have a complaint with the action scenes. Why do Zod and Superman completely trash Metropolis? Isn’t Superman supposed to protect Metropolis, not destroy it? When Zod has the tanker and throws it at Superman, he doesn’t just grab it and set it down, he instead moves out of the way, and it gets thrown into the building. Then when Zod is using his lazer eyes to kill the humans in the building and Superman is pleading with Zod not to kill him, and he doesn’t listen, he breaks Zod’s neck, killing him. I don’t get why Superman all of a sudden cared for those people Zod was going to zap with his lazer eyes when there were several people that he and Zod killed in the buildings they crashed through, and Superman didn’t give any emotion towards them. With Batman, even though he may not have saved everyone when he went out to fight crime in Gotham City, he at least had felt bad that he couldn’t save them. Why can’t Superman do that? I grew up watching "Superman: The Animated Series," and that was a pretty good cartoon. They portrayed Superman very well, but he wasn't like that in here. He doesn't show any emotions, doesn't seem to care about people, and he seems completely expressionless. I hope that in future sequels, they at least give Superman a soul. Also, fan boys would be saying, “Superman doesn’t kill his villains!” It’s a different time people. I don’t mean to say that in the future films I want to see Superman kill all of his villains, but still, it was going to happen. Zod wasn’t listening to Supeman’s pleas to not kill the people, and when he killed Zod, he screamed out in agony over what he did. That comes across as strong since Superman doesn’t like what he did. Since we live in a different day-in-age, it would not be any different than a cop shooting a criminal. Even though Superman has flight power, Zod would have resisted. However, as good of a job Michael Shannon did as Zod, it's not as memorable as Terence Stamp's Zod from Superman II. Also, the villain that "truly" stole the show was Antje Traue, who played Faora, Zod's sub-commander and a commander of the Kryptonian military. She is completely devoted and loyal to General Zod.

One more flaw I don’t like about the film is Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet at the end of the film. Wait, we didn’t see anything that built up to that. Why didn’t they show him working for his school newspaper company or anything where he gets clips before getting the job at the Daily Planet? Also, he doesn’t start wearing the glasses until the end of the film, which I was perfectly alright with. I still don’t understand how anyone can’t see past the glasses. He was exposed for a few moments in “Superman 2,” and no one noticed that Clark was Superman. But I digress, this film is still good. It’s “way” better than 3, 4, and Returns, but the first two are still better. As much as I like this movie, I do acknowledge the faults and won't defend it like it's the best Superman movie. However, it's nowhere near being as bad as some of the past Superman movies, and that's a fact. Also, like Brandon Routh, Cavill doesn’t get many lines, but that’s ok, since Cavill doesn’t sound like a Christopher Reeves rip-off. Go see the film if you haven't, I think you'll enjoy it. Just a heads up, it's darker than Batman Begins, but that doesn't mean there are still moments of humor in it. There are some funny moments, but not as much as in Batman Begins. Still check it out when you get the chance.

Thank you for joining in on my Superman week. I hope you enjoyed this week as much as I did reviewing every single film in the Superman franchise. The Wall Street Journal has said the sequel to “Man of Steel” is going to come out next year, which I feel is going to be rushed, but we’ll see, they’ll probably delay it. Stay tuned for next week where I start back up with the “Lethal Weapon” reviews.